1. Technical Field
Aspects of the present invention relate to a multifunction peripheral which is configured to have a plurality of types of function units capable of executing a plurality of types of functions by using one of the function units or some of the function units in combination.
2. Related Art
Multifunction peripherals having a plurality of functions, such as, a copying function, a facsimile function and a printing function, have been widely used. For example, a laser printer unit and a scanner unit are mounted on a multifunction peripheral. In general, such a multifunction peripheral is configured to move to a power save mode when a state where no access to the multifunction peripheral occurs continues for a predetermined time period so that power consumption is reduced. In the power save mode, power supply to a scanner or a laser printer in the multifunction peripheral is suspended.
One of such multifunction peripherals is configured to release the power save mode in response to a power save release signal generated by a sensor provided in one of the function units prior to a user's instruction. Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 2002-359703A (hereafter, referred to as JP2002-359703A) discloses such a multifunction peripheral. More specifically, the multifunction peripheral disclosed in JP2002-359703A is configured to exit from the power save mode and to supply power to a scanner unit again when an original is set on an original base. That is, the multifunction peripheral expects the scanner unit to be used when an original is set on the original base by a user.
However, there may be a case where a user uses the copying function of the multifunction peripheral after an original is set on the original base. Although the multifunction peripheral disclosed in JP2002-359703A starts to supply power again to the scanner unit after an original is set on the original base, the multifunction peripheral stays in a state of not supplying power to a printing unit (i.e., a laser printer unit in the multifunction peripheral) even when an original is set on the original base. In this case, when a user instructs the multifunction peripheral to execute the copying function, power is supplied to the printing unit after the instruction is accepted. Therefore, the user needs to wait for a certain time period until the copying function actually starts.